Welsh, who scored the Under-21 side's opening goal in Tuesday's 2-0 UEFA European Championship qualifying victory over Azerbaijan at Middlesbrough, has already been compared to his Liverpool team-mate.

The 21-year-old made his Champions League debut for Liverpool away at Bayer Leverkusen earlier this month and marked his first start for the Peter Taylor's side with a rare goal.

He said: "It's been a brilliant month. It's always nice to get on for Liverpool because I don't make that many appearances - and I don't score many goals.

"The lads are giving me a bit of stick, asking if it was a cross!

"People say I'm similar to Stevie G, but I don't know. I try to model myself on him because he's been one of my idols. You look at him week in, week out and try to model your game on him. It's brilliant to be compared to him, but he scores more goals than me.

"I've watched him as a fan because I've been with Liverpool since I was eight. People like him and Jamie Carragher have come through from the academy like me.

"They're brilliant players. I think Carra has been tremendous this season and Stevie is one of the best players in the world.

"You learn from world-class players like them. They always talk to you and help you.''

England displaced Germany as Group Six leaders with their Riverside victory, and Welsh added: "It's nice to have won because we knew from the start they would try to block us out and make it hard to break them down.

"I thought our wide boys, Kieran Richardson and James Milner, were excellent.

"They got at them every time they had the ball and they did us credit. It's great to come away with the Under-21 squad and get experience like this.''